{"id":11461,"date":"2026-05-01T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/?p=11461"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:58:49","slug":"comic-books-in-special-collections-los-supermachos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/comic-books-in-special-collections-los-supermachos\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic Books in Special Collections: Los Supermachos<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Emiliano Aguilar, PhD, <\/a>Assistant Professor History, University of Notre Dame<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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The first Saturday every May is celebrated as Free Comic Book Day<\/a>. Since 2002, this annual event by the North American comic book industry aims to attract new readers to independent comic bookstores and a variety of titles. Books dedicated to superheroes, adaptations of television shows, frightening tales, and more are made available for visitors to these shops. This year, we are highlighting one of the historically rich comics in Rare Books and Special Collections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 1965, Eduardo del R\u00edo Garc\u00eda (1934-2017), known by his pseudonym, Rius, released Los supermachos<\/em> (published by Editorial Meridiano), which, at its height, reportedly sold 200,000 copies a week. The comic book served as a critical commentary on Mexico\u2019s social problems from the perspectives of the fictional town, San Garabato de las Tunas, Cuc., and the eccentric inhabitants of the rural town. Over the issues, Rius introduced his readers to a wide array of characters, such as the central character, Juan Calz\u00f3nzin. Often the guide for the reader, the indigenous Calz\u00f3nzin possessed a rich understanding of Mexican and global affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the recurring characters in Los Supermachos<\/em>, left to right: Arsenio (Don Perpetuo’s bodyguard or enforcer), Don Perpetuo Del Rosal (the local strongman), Chon Prieto (Calzonzin’s friend and the town drunkard), and Juan Calz\u00f3nzin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a medium, comics served as a democratic equalizer for the Mexican public, as no one was barred by geography, class, occupation, or education \u2013 even literacy \u2013 from reading and sharing them. Another recurring figure in Los Supermachos<\/em>, the mayor and jefe politico <\/em>of San Garabato, Don Perpetuo Del Rosal, served as an icon to criticize one-party rule in Mexico. The local strongman, Don Perpetuo, is associated with the ruling party, the RIP, a mockery of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which dominated Mexico\u2019s political landscape for seventy-one years (1929-2000). Throughout the series, Don Perpetuo served as a foil for Los supermachos<\/em> as he personally organizes the elections \u2014 always sure to declare the ruling RIP the repeated winner, commands his own police force, and builds a collaborative relationship with the local landowners, all while claiming unconditional support from the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Rius would leave Los supermachos<\/em> due to government censorship. During his time authoring the books, the publishing team at Editorial Meridiano often revised Rius\u2019s work to avoid fines and bureaucratic burdens, such as the denial of subsidized paper or restrictions on postal service for distribution. When Rius left, the book kept the title and much of the cast of characters, but without crediting him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The volumes in Rare Books and Special Collections<\/a> are mainly from after Rius\u2019s departure.\u00a0However, each comic offers an opportunity to understand the medium as a form of commentary and education for the Mexican people in the 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Published August 20, 1970, issue 242, is perhaps one of the more critical forms of political commentary. Los Supermachos: LA CIA <\/em>follows Calz\u00f3nzin, detailing the CIA’s history after he and his friends encounter a Gringo, who had just taken a ten-dollar bill that Calz\u00f3nzin hoped to claim. Responding to their shock of seeing of seeing a Gringo in their community, he said, \u201cNo lo duden que ese billete que se llevo el Gringo sirva de pil\u00f3n pa controlar a medio mundo. [Make no mistake: that bill the Gringo took is being used as a lever to control half the world.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mixing pop cultural icons, such as the Road Runner and Mickey Mouse ears, alongside real figures, the comic gives a grassroots history of the Central Intelligence Agency from a Mexican perspective. The comic uses the visual of two figures tossing a blue ball, which symbolizes the world, back and forth over a wall, as Calz\u00f3nzin remarks that \u201cAdem\u00e1s, de fuentes oficiales norteamericanas se ha afirmado m\u00e1s de una vez la existencia en Moscu de un organism official de lucha sicol\u00f3gica contra la CIA. O lo que es lo mismo orta CIA, nom\u00e1s que sovietica.\u201d [In fact, U.S. official sources have stated more than once that there is an official agency in Moscow engaged in psychological warfare against the CIA. Or, in other words, another CIA \u2013 only Soviet.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The creator uses each frame as a method to unravel how the CIA asserts its power and U.S. imperialism abroad. A military figure, bookended by the U.S. flag, details how the network of influence relies on three forms of action: political, psychological, and paramilitary. Merging the visual and textual allowed Los supermachos <\/em>to present their point about the slow creeping Americanization of the world, even in Mexico. In the comic, the cultural changes wrought by U.S. business and pop culture epitomize the CIA\u2019s war for influence. The deliberate use of actual photos, such as for Allen W. Dulles, the former Deputy Director of the CIA, or a Mexican father walking his children who are dressed as U.S. superheroes became ways for the comic to complement the visual and textual critique of U.S. influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Los supermachos, <\/em>even after Rius\u2019 departure, remained a relatively popular comic for Mexico\u2019s public. The book offered an opportunity to educate various aspects of society, such as a later issue on the importance of vaccinations. The comic remained a biting cultural critique of Mexico, authoritarian rule, the Americanization of the world, and much more. Through engaging simple visuals and colloquial Spanish, the indigenous Calz\u00f3nzin made the complex political, economic, and social issues digestible for a broad audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This vibrant and engaging comic run offers not only a window into Mexico, but an entertaining view into the countercultural influence on generations of political cartoonists, such as Lalo Alcaraz, an award-winning contemporary cartoonist known for his comical takes on Latino History and issues, who credits Rius as a major influence on his career as a cartoonist.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emiliano Aguilar, PhD, Assistant Professor History, University of Notre Dame The first Saturday every May is celebrated as Free Comic Book Day. Since 2002, this annual event by the North American comic book industry aims to attract new readers to independent comic bookstores and a variety of titles. Books dedicated to superheroes, adaptations of television shows, … Continue reading Comic Books in Special Collections: Los Supermachos<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1936,"featured_media":11474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75059,75054,12646,75052],"tags":[381302,77948,77929],"class_list":["post-11461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fine-printing-book-arts","category-latin-american-studies","category-miscellaneous","category-us-history-culture","tag-mexico","tag-otd-holidays","tag-periodicals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1936"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11461"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12470,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11461\/revisions\/12470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}